Welting and method of producing welting



I ca, H. JENNINGS 2,004,117

WELTING AND METHOD O1 PRODUCING WELTING I June 11, 1935.

Filed May 29, 1935 Patented June'll, 1935 WELTING AND METHOD OF PRODUCING WELTING.

George Hollis Jennings, Elmwood, East Bridgewater, Mass.

Application May 29, 1933, Serial No. 673,413

8 Claims,

This invention relates to improvements in welting and methods of producing welting.

More particularly it relates to ,calking welts and the like, such as are used extensively, for filling the welt crease between the upper and the welt or sole of a shoe, and which maybeemployed for beading and finishing a joint between adjacent surfaces in upholstery, and other articles of manufacture.

Thefunction of calk weltingina shoe is to fill theang'ular crevice, at theabove stated location, so as to exclude mud, snow, water and dust. Also it is desirable that thefcalk welting shall lend a certain distinction and characted to ashoe, by presenting an attractive ,calking bead which may be polished by the ordinary agencies for that purpose.

In Goodyear welt shoes,,the best kinds of call: welting. have a' fin portion integral withithe bead portion, the fin being such that it canreach into the welt crease, between the Goodyear welt and the upper,-to be pierced and held by the inseam stitches which secure together the Goodyear welt and the upper. The calking welt overlies the main welt, its fin curving aroundthe inner top corner of the main welt, andfordinarily running down across the inner vertical edgethereof, to a place where the mainwelt, the bottom edge of the upper, and aportion of the innersole, all rest on the top of the outersole.

Calk welting intendedfor use in shoes of the better quality is constructed on the theory that the surface of its bead which will be exposed to view, when in the shoe, should be grain surface. The grain face is smoother, less porous andmore susceptible to taking a good polish than in a flesh face. Also it it substantially more expensive.

Various prior proposals have been directed to- I ing that object. Also it provides an improved product.

By the method a prepared strip of leather having a grain surface has its body subjected to a succession of transposing operationswhereby a part of the body of leather including the flesh face is turned, as on a hinge, in the midst of the leather body, from its originalrelation to the part of the body having the grain face, to a location more dis.- I

= tant from thatgrainfaceh This, in acertain sense, converts a portion of the width ofthe leather strip into additional thickness of that strip. The original strip, in a preferred form, initially hasslightly greater width of. grain surface than is needed for providing the desired grain surface of welting bead that is to. fill the crease fromthetop face of a Goodyear welt, for example, to the adjacent upper. This slight'surplus maybe cut away ina rectangular strip to a depth approximating half the thickness} of the original strip, leaving a sort of L-shaped body. The residue of thickness, that underlay the removed strip, thus becomes-a lateral projection of flesh leather, which remains integralwith and alongside of that flesh leather which'underlies the intact grain. surface. Thisjlateral flesh leather, whichhas the reduced thickness, is, according to the invention, to be swung'around" 90 more or less so that it will stand under the remaining grain surface, addingitself in the direction which was the original direction of thickness, to that body of flesh leather which already is under that grain, to make the fin part of the welt.

The'invention provides for the accomplishing of this by slitting the strip longitudinally at-a strategic location, which, preferably, will be at the lower, inner angle of the hollow formed by the said removal of material. And the slit is shallow and oblique, preferably directed toward the remoterbase angle of the strip whichis'diagonally opposite the corner that was removed. The adjacent flesh leather, under the grainsurface and beyond the slit, constitutes a hingeabout which the lateralbody of fiesh leather may bev bent rearward to make the fin, with the slit spreading open. The transposition may be executed inprogressive stages by means of press-- ing or molding rollers which effect the bending andswinging of, andmold. theleather into the new shape,

Preferably the remote basexangle of the strip, toward which the slit was directed, will be chamfered slightlyxprior to subjecting the strip to the transposing pressure. Thesame said molding or rolling may shape the grain surfacedportion of the strip into the bead part of the 'weltingwith a gently curved grain surface which is therpart to be exposed to View in the finished-shoe.

Or, if desired, the original strip may approximate in width the full extent of bead surface which is. to be exposed in a shoe, in which case all ofx-the grain surface of that strip is to be left intact, and theremay be a removal of. material at a side edge, by grooving,.withthe slit at the bottom ofthe groove.

connections.

tirelyof flesh leather.

It is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appended claims, whatever features of patentable novelty exists in the invention disclosed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is an isometric showing of astock strip of leather from which my improved calk welting may be produced according to the method herein disclosed, indicating in dotted lines a corner strip to be removed;

Figure 2 is an isometric showing of the same strip at an intermediate stage of my improved method;

Figures 3 and 4 show the same strip at subsequent stages of the method; 7 l g 7 Figure 5 shows my improved welting in a preferred finished form;

Figure 6 is an elevation, in section, showing th welting of Figure 5 embodiedin a shoe;

Figure 7 is an isometric showing of a narrower stock strip corresponding to Figure 1, which may be employed in practicing my improved method in a modified way;

Figure 8 shows an intermediate stage in the conversion of the stock strip of Figure 7;

Figure 9 shows a modified form of finished ,welting obtainable by my improved method from the strips of Figures 7 and 8; and

' Figure 10 shows the welting of Figure 9 embodied in a shoe. I

\ Referring to the drawing, two stock strips ll ill of leather are represented in Figures 1 and 7 respectively, each having a grain face, a flesh face and two edge faces. The strip ill of Figure 1 has its grain face indicated at l2, its flesh face at it and its two edge faces at l5, 88, while the corresponding faces of the strip ID are indicated by the numerals l2, l4, l6 and 18'.

According to my improved method the finished welting form is attained by transposition of leather under molding pressure. Preliminarily, however, the stock strip, whether id or ill, has a portion cut away to facilitate the desiredtransposition, and is slitted longitudinally at a strategic location to facilitate opening of the: stock under the influence of the molding pressure.

Inthe, case of stock strip it, which has width of grain face a little greater than what is needed to surfacea welting bead, the excess portion, as at 25, of that grain surface is removed, leaving intact the portion of grain which is for surfacing the welting head. The portion 28 whichis thus cut away may be a rectangular strip having depth or thickness approximating half the thickness of the stock strip Ill. And the removed strip 20 may be suitable for sale, or may be used in As an illustrative example, a satisfactory commercial form of stock strip it may have width of grain face approximating /32 of an inch, of which /64 ofan inch may be removed inthe piece 2i], leaving /64 of'an inch of grain for surfacing the Welting bead. The thickness of the stock stripordinarily will approximate /32 of an inch,of which /64 of an inch may be removed in the piece 20. p 7 a The resulting strip, after cutting away the portion 20, will have an approximate L-shape, comprisingabody in which the grain leather and flesh leather continue intact, and an integral lateral flange, projecting rectangularly from the intact body to the original edge E5 and composeden- An important'feature of the invention resides other been found satisfactory, although it may be made greater or less, in particular cases.

7 As-a preliminary to the molding, I prefer also to cut away the square angle at 23, between flesh facelfl and edge face l8, to a rounded or chamfered form, as at 25 in Figure 2, which facilitates the swinging of the flange edge It to desired position in the finished welting strip. The rounding or chamfering at 25 may extend from about midway of the edge face l8, to about /3 of the distance along flesh face l4.

The strip thus prepared, as seen in Figure 2,

is ready for the transposing step, in which it is run between coacting'rollers and is transformed and molded in shape by their pressure. Ordinarily this transformation will be effected in stages by a succession of applications of molding pressure by'the rollers. The prepared strip is first suitably tempered and softened, which may include treatment with a solution of resinous material, as shellac, or with casein, or some other material that-after drying and hardening will help hold the leather in its new form. Then'it is run between pressure-molding rollers which spread the slit 22 open, swing rearward the lateral flange of leather which has the residue of edge It, turning it on the adjacent strong mid-body of the leather, as a hinge, from'its positionof parallelism with to a position .where it stands more or less perpendicular to the grain face, and is more distant from the intact grain surface of the strip, its length being added to the thickness of seen in Figure 4 after which it may be subjected to a final compressing by the rollers to acccmplish the finished welting form of Figure 5.

In the case of an initial stock strip like Ill of Figure 7, a somewhat similar procedure is followed. Here, however, a characteristic is that width of the stock strip approximates the desired finish width of surface of the Welting bead. Consequently all of the grain leather is left intact,

and the body of stock removed is taken from an I edge face l6, by cutting a groove therein as at 25. As illustrated in Figure 8, this groove 26 is of V-shape, starts from the edge of the grain surface, and has depth appreciably less than half the width of strip is. The slit 22' is at the bot- 5 have been chamfered at 25" as' in the previous case. And in either case a very small stripcarry ing the sharp angle at the juncture of grain facewith edge face l8 or ill may be skived off, if desired. The finished welting produced from this a narrower fin than has been usual heretofore;and may have a slightly curved shape, if desired, to facilitate embodiment of it in a shoe. The'shorter fin may not reach down to the outersole as is usual, but it is securely held nevertheless by the inseam passing through what was a strong midportion of the original leather, as shown in Figure 10.

The increase of distance along the actual surface from grain face to flesh face, made by cutting away strip 20 in the one case, and by the groove 26 in the other case, furnishes an actual surface which is available for constituting one surface of the fin and which can reach further back from the grain face than would the original thickness of leather, without there having to be a mastication, crushing or other internal disruption of the leather in the molding process in order to make it reach back so far.

The bottom of the groove whether made by removal of substance from the edge at the location indicated in Figure 1, or that in Figure 7, lies near the mid-thickness of the leather strip; and the slit 22 or 22 cut therefrom into the remaining substance of the leather is therefore in that part of the leather which is strongest, where the characteristic structure of the flesh face portion and that of the grainface portion intermingle. The leather substance about which the flesh portion turns as on a hinge when the slit is opened, and through which the stitches of the inseam will later pass, is therefore of the toughest and strongest character that was in the original strip.

Although illustrated in connection with a shoe of Goodyear welt type, the utility of the invention is not limited to shoes of that variety.

I claim as my invention:

1. The method of producing a welting strip having a bead and a fin, comprising the removing of part of the substance of the strip from one edge of a leather strip at a place at or near the face of the strip, thereby reducing the thickness of leather in the strip at that edge; and slitting the intact body of leather adjacent to the place where the said removal of substance occurred; followed by the eliminating of the slit by spreading it open, and, by pressure, molding the slit open to a shape wherein the material which constituted its walls becomes, on each side, approximately in alignment with the surface of that material which was left by the said removal of substance.

2. The method of producing a welting strip having a bead and a fin, comprising the cutting of a groove along an edge of .a leather strip at or near one face corner thereof; the cutting of a slit further into the leather at the bottom of the groove, said slit extending into the leather which underlies the intact portion of said grooved face; followed by the'bending of the residue on one side of said groove away from the residue on the other side of said groove, with a spreading open of the slit, and then, by molding pressure, ironing the leather stock on opposite sides of the opened slit simultaneously further open thereby to convert the slit walls into an extended surface for elongation of material to constitute a fin for the slittfurtheninto the leather from the bottom of the groove, said slit extending toward that remote corner of the strip which is diagonally op.- posite saidgroove; followed by the spreading of the residue of stock on one side of said groove away from the residue of'stock on the other side of the groove, thereby eliminating the said slit by transposition of stock at each wall of the slit approximately into the same plane with the original surface stock which was adjacent to the mouth of the slit.

4. The method of producing a welting strip having a bead and a fin, comprising the cutting of a rabbet along an edge of the grain face of a leather strip having a grain face and a flesh face; the cutting of a diagonally directed slit at the bottom of the rabbet; followed by the bending of the strip open at the said slit by molding pressure, including a bending away from the grain face of that flesh face substance which is below the rabbet, on a hinge of the leather substance of the strip which lies adjacent to the bottom of said slit, and the setting of the bent strip, by molding pressure, into a bead and fin constitut ing a calk welting structure, the cross section of whose body substance, is free from lesion.

5. The method of producing a welting strip having a bead and a fin, comprising the removwhile leaving some substance of the strip at that edge; slitting the intact body of leather adjacent to the place where the said removal of leather occurred; chamfering away the corner of the strip between the other edge and that face of the strip at which substance was left; followed by the opening of the strip at said slit, with a molding of that said substance which was left into a Welting fin, and a molding of the portion of the strip on the otherside of the slit into a welting bead integral with the fin.

6. The method of producing a welting strip having a bead and a fin, comprising the removing of substance from one edge of a leather strip while leaving some substance of the strip at that edge; slitting the intact body of leather adjacent to the place where the said removal of leather occurred; chamfering away the corner of the strip between the other edge and that face of the strip at which substance was left; followed by the opening of the strip at said slit, with a molding of that substance which was left and skiving that molded surface which includes the residue of said chamfer with adjacent edge and face.

7. Welting having a bead and a fin, comprising a leather strip in which the bead has a grain face, and the fin comprises, in large part, flesh leather, being leather stock which lay along the flesh face of the natural leather and comprises in part a portion of the mid-substance, being a backing of leather stock which lay along the said flesh face of the natural leather, in the midst between grain face and flesh face; said flesh leather and the backing of mid-substance being in a transposed position relative to the grain face of bead and standing more distant from said bead face than in the natural. state; said transposition being from natural position through a substantial angle of bending to the fin position.

8. In a shoe having welt, upper and insole, and an inseam securing them together, the combination therewith, laid in the crease between welt and upper, of a leather calking welt having a grain leather bead exposed to view and having an integral fin composed of mid-substance and flesh leather which together have been pressed away from the bead into laterally projecting relation thereto, said fin reaching in and secured 5 by the inseam; in which combination the inseam passes through and only through that sub- 

